Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 22:25:15 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "Andrew J Caines" <A.J.Caines@altavista.net>, "FreeBSD Questions" <FreeBSD-Questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: FreeBSD 4.3 is UNIX? Message-ID: <000e01c0ed7f$e711b220$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <20010604204601.S49449@hal9000.servehttp.com>
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Hi Andrew, Before I say anything let me point out that you yourself are using the collection of letters: "Unix" in your siggy. This is in violation of TOG's UNIX usage guidelines which spec ALL CAPS, ie UNIX. Also, your not correct when you say the (R) is required, it's not. In fact, according to the TOG trademark usage requirements, all that's needed is UNIX, all caps. See http://www.opengroup.org/trademarks.htm Wind River could have well paid or gotten permission from TOG for all we know. But, I seriously don't think they have. Here's the scoop: The original AT&T trademark is on UNIX, all caps. However, a trademark is only as good as the organization that owns it is willing to defend. If a court of law decides that the registered trademark has passed into the vernacular as a noun - then you are screwed - your registered trademark is worthless. Some examples of trademarks that have been lost because of being converted to nouns are kleenex and xerox, although I understand that those companies are still out there fighting people that are using them as nouns. There's other trademarks that I can't remember right now that are even further gone and the original trademark holders have given up, or lost court lawsuits attempting to fight people. Now, in my personal opinion, a very strong case that UNIX has passed into the vernacular could be made today, in which case the proper usage would be unix - all lower case. Unix is incorrect because as I understand it was registered as an acronym, not a proper name. However, the fact that Unix is so universally used essentially makes that utilization correct too. Obviously, TOG disagrees mightily. However, I'll point out that according to TOG, the ACTUAL branding is either "UNIX 95" or UNIX 98" it's NOT just plain UNIX. I strongly suspect that this is a fallback strategy because they know that holding onto UNIX is a lost cause. Wind River is probably sensing the way the wind blows and has decided that TOG is too afraid of a ruling against them in a trademark dispute case, to worry that TOG will make a stink over usage of UNIX. As long as Wind River isn't throwing a rad flag down and slapping "UNIX 95" on there then technically they are just violating trademark, they are not in violation of the branding requirements. I'm actually very pleased to see this because I would love to see TOG file a trademark dispute case over the use of the term UNIX, so that we could have some clarification here. I'd love it even more if they lost because I feel that by denying the industry common usage of what I feel is a word today, TOG is harming the Unix industry's ability to fight against Microsoft. But, I'm sure that those making money off doing nothing other than collecting fees for using a word, would disagree. Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com >-----Original Message----- >From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG >[mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Andrew J Caines >Sent: Monday, June 04, 2001 5:46 PM >To: FreeBSD Questions >Subject: FreeBSD 4.3 is UNIX? > > > >It is always a good day when the CDs arrive, even for a STABLE tracker >such as I, with new colour schemes, product catalogue and of course more >stickers. This is of course the first release backed by Wind River. > >What caught my eye right away was the new legend on the CD case, which >reads > > "A Full High-performance 32/64 bit UNIX Operating System" > >in stark contrast to the usual "...4.4 BSD Lite based...". > >I can't find any indication that I missed the news that FreeBSD has been >certified by the Open Group and note that it's not the colloquial "unix" >or even the _all words start in upper case_ "Unix", but the Open Group >specified all-caps "UNIX", except without the required registered >trademark ® symbol. > >While in other cases this might be just an unintentional use of a common >term, there is no way, given its rich and exciting history, that it would >happen in a BSD release. > >To muddy the waters further, the FreeBSD Mall sheet has the same legend >printed on it under the "FreeBSD 4.3" title, however the picture of the CD >case, which is accurate in every other detail, shows the blurb on the CD >as saying "...4.4 BSD Lite based..."! > > >What's the story behind this? > > >-Andrew- >-- > _______________________________________________________________________ >| -Andrew J. Caines- Unix Systems Engineer A.J.Caines@altavista.net | > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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